The Russell Institution (fuller titles: Russell Institution for the Promotion of Literary and Scientific Knowledge , and the Russell Literary and Scientific Institution ) was an organisation devoted to scientific, literary and musical education, based in London. It was founded by private subscription in 1808, taking as models the Royal Institution and the London Institution , both at the time popular.
8-498: George John Singer (1786–1817) was an English early pioneer of electrical research, noted for his publications and for lectures delivered privately and at the Russell Institution . Singer was the son of Thomas Singer, and the younger brother of Samuel Weller Singer . In early life he was engaged in his mother's business of artificial-flower making. Every spare moment, however, he devoted to scientific study, more particularly to
16-598: A work of considerable contemporary importance, which was translated into French (Paris, 1817), into Italian (Milan, 1819), and into German (Breslau, 1819). He also contributed several papers to the Philosophical Magazine from 1813 to 1815, of which a list is given in Ronalds's Catalogue of Books on Electricity, Magnetism , &c. Singer made almost the whole of his apparatus himself, and introduced several enhancements. He invented an improved gold-leaf electrometer that
24-459: The Institution were the "gradual formation of a library, consisting of the most useful works in ancient and modern literature; the establishment of a reading room provided with the best foreign and English journals, and the periodical publications, and lectures on literary and scientific subjects. The books in the library will be circulated for reading among the proprietors." The institution proper
32-554: The investigation of electricity and electromagnetism , then little known. He was a friend of and worked with Andrew Crosse , another early electrical pioneer. Singer built, almost unassisted, a large room at the back of his mother's house in Prince's Street, Cavendish Square , where he gave courses of lectures on electricity and kindred subjects. Among his audience were Michael Faraday and Sir Francis Ronalds . Singer published Elements of Electricity and Electro-chemistry , London, 1814,
40-546: The literature, such as a report of 1851 lectures there by Charles Richard Weld ; an observation in Frederick Miller's 1874 St Pancras – Past and Present noting that some of the premises had been given over to a wine merchant, but that the library continued to receive daily papers, and monthly and annual journals. The Institution survived until near the end of the century; the Post Office listed it in an 1881 directory, but it
48-578: Was formed, somewhat opportunistically, to provide a revenue-paying purpose for an assembly hall which had been constructed in Coram Street, north of new housing around Bloomsbury Square . Previous ventures at the building having failed, the proprietors "thought it expedient" to imitate the model of the Royal and London Institutions; to that end they organised a meeting of local residents, seeking 12,500 guineas at 25 guineas each from 500 subscribers. The objects of
56-432: Was in being by June 1808, 2,700 guineas being spent to purchase the premises and some 4,500 guineas on equipping a library and providing a stock of books. Two or three courses of scientific lectures were given per annum. In order to fund the institution's ongoing expenses and provide some guarantee of stability, subscribers paid a guinea per annum. The Institution was relatively long-lived; periodic mentions of it are found in
64-560: Was used widely for many years. A key feature was a new mode of insulating the wire connected to the leaves through the cap of the bottle, which he announced in 1811 and described in his book. Ronalds later put on record that the idea for the insulation was his. Singer died, unmarried, of pulmonary tuberculosis , induced by overwork, on 28 June 1817, at his mother's house. He lived in the Old House now known as Coundon Court Academy. Attribution Russell Institution The Institution
#762237